taking a trip down the aisle

We just finished sending out our invites to U.S. (Western Hemisphere) family and friends – as per Greek tradition we’ll hand out invites in person, in Greece. As you’ll see on the invite, we’ve requested that people RSVP via our blog. Please CLICK HERE to RSVP.

Thank you for taking the time to visit our site and RSVP. We can’t wait for our big day and can’t wait to celebrate with you (in person or from afar)!

This morning my friend Samantha kindly shared the following article with me: http://thehairpin.com/2012/03/the-wine-scout-greece. After reading it I thought it may be nice to share it with all our guests. It’s also my way of bringing back the Greek economy- Ζητω Ελλαδασ! For anyone coming to our nuptials or visiting Greece, I’m sure you’ll get your fair exposer to Greek wines at almost every meal. And for those of you celebrating from afar, I recommend getting yourself a bottle of Greek wine and breaking it open on June 30, 2012.

As for beers, Greeks have their “Mythos” beer, a kind of pilsner type of beer. But, don’t be surprise if you don’t see a single Greek drinking Mythos. Though it’s tasty, Heineken and Amstel have dominated the Greek market. Most places offer either Amstel or Heineken (at my Grandmother’s “kafeneeo” these were the only beers she served).

So whether you are drinking wine, ouzo, or beer (maybe all three), we hope you enjoy yourself and stay safe.

Have you ever seen Locked Up Aboard? If you have a free Saturday afternoon and your TV is stuck on the National Geographic Channel, I’d recommend watching it. There are two major lessons/rules I’ve learned from this show:

1. Never let a drug dealer pay for your vacation – NEVER EVER.

2. Don’t give out your passport to any one. And if you do, make copies of all personal identification and get it certified.

Now, if you are the kind of person that thinks these rules are reasonable ( I may be little paranoid on rule #2) and you are planning to rent a car in Greece, than you’ll want to get an International Driver’s Permit (IDP) – also referred to as an international license. Please visit your local AAA office or click HERE to learn more about obtaining an IDP.

Greek law requires that you have the official IDP to show along with your own driver’s license . The permit and original license must be shown together (that’s right you’ll need to bring along your state driver’s license). If you are stopped by the Greek traffic police [knock on wood], the automatic translation provided by the international license may make things go just a little bit more smoothly. Think about, do you really want to have a story about getting stopped by cops in Greece? (Plus you wouldn’t even have a cool enough story to get on Locked Up Aboard!)

And if you want to avoid the hassle of a car you can always try this out:

Recently, my parent’s (Andrianne’s) got ANT1, a Greek television channel, to keep up with Greek news and so on. Other than the news (which we can probably get from online news sources or Facebook) my parents, particularly my mother, have become obsessed with Greek soap operas. And I don’t blame her; well…because there’s DRAMA! Good-old-fashion, over-the-top, mascara-running-down-your-face drama. (Sidenote: the word “drama” comes from the Greek word for “action”). Hey! it’s why I watch Revengeon ABC. Actually, my mom’s obsession is more highbrow than my own — Greeks actually cast unattractive as well as the “fancy-face” types in their shows.

Now, drama has a long history in Greek cultural. And there is no better place to experience drama and history in one place than Epidaurus. Annually, beginning in June, the Epidaurus Festival, stages ancient Greek plays in the ancient open-air theater. The performances run on Fridays and Saturdays only, and you’ll need to get tickets well in advance — the 15,000 person theater usually sells out. If you are looking for some drama or in the mood to experience some history, then you’ll definitely appericate Epidauraus.

I just wanted to thank my sister, Christophile Konstas, for helping with this blog. I’ve been (and most likely will continue to) stealing information and posts from my sister’s wedding blog. She got married in August of 2007 in Greece! Even though her wedding was almost 5 years ago, the posts still apply to today (us Greeks really love holding on to old things). And it’s her beautiful photography in the post below. To check out more of her work click HERE.

We’ve bought our tickets to Greece! And made some updates to our blog, please visit the “Accommodations” and “Getting There” pages for details. Here are some “digital postcards” of the Konstas Family’s home town of Palaiopanagia.

This is the church where we are tying the knot!

Our reception will be held in the mountain village of Toriza.

Palaiopanagia is a farming village: olive oil is the village's main crop.

If you are ever lost in Palaiopanagia just look for the Church's bell tower...